Betty Hutton

Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg; February 26, 1921 – March 12, 2007) was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. She rose to fame in the 1940s as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, appearing primarily in musicals and became one of the studio's most valuable stars. She was noted for her energetic performance style. Raised in Detroit during the Great Depression by a single mother who worked as a bootlegger, Hutton began performing as a singer from a young age, entertaining patrons of her mother's speakeasy. While performing in local nightclubs, she was discovered by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez, who hired her as a singer in his band. In 1940, Hutton was cast in the Broadway productions Two for the Show and Panama Hattie, and attracted notice for her raucous and animated live performances. She relocated to Los Angeles in 1941 after being signed by Paramount Pictures, and concurrently recorded numerous singles for Capitol Records. Her breakthrough role came in Preston Sturges's The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), and she went on to receive further notice for her lead role as Annie Oakley in the musical Annie Get Your Gun (1950), and for Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). She made her final feature film appearance in Spring Reunion (1957). After leaving Paramount, Hutton starred in her own series, The Betty Hutton Show, from 1959 until 1960. She continued to perform in stage productions, though her career faltered following a series of personal struggles, including chronic depression, alcoholism, and prescription drug addiction. Hutton largely abandoned her performing career by the 1970s, and found employment in a Rhode Island rectory after becoming nearly destitute. She returned to the stage temporarily replacing Alice Ghostley in the original Broadway production of Annie in 1980. In her later life, Hutton attended Salve Regina University, where she earned a master's degree in psychology in 1986. After working as an acting instructor at Emerson College, Hutton returned to California in 1999 and resided in Palm Springs, where she died in 2007, aged 86.